A vodka-fuelled tale explains the bison on Finland’s new F-35

One of Finland’s new F-35 fighters carries a European bison on its tail, a marking rooted in a wartime trip to Poland and a story involving vodka, Yle reports. The aircraft, JF-511, arrived in Rovaniemi last week and bears the emblem of Fighter Squadron 11, a unit based there under the Lapland Air Command.

The squadron’s bison emblem dates back to 1941, when 12 officers and 13 non-commissioned officers from Finnish Flight Squadron 46 travelled to Warsaw to collect 15 Dornier Do 17 Z bombers donated by Germany. The aircraft were still on the Eastern Front, however, and a trip planned to last two weeks stretched to about six weeks.

As the Finnish group waited in Warsaw, its members became familiar with local bars. According to the squadron’s oral history, they came up with the idea of an emblem there. Three versions of the story explain where they found the bison image: on a bottle label for Polish Bison Grass vodka, on a cardboard beer mat, or on a metal Zubrowka vodka advertisement outside a bar.

Author Ari Manninen, who wrote a book about the squadron’s bison emblem, believes the image came from a beer mat. The group reportedly agreed that the bull-like animal suited the squadron, partly because the expedition’s leader, Major Reino Artola, was known for his strict, “bull-like” discipline.

When the group finally returned to Finland with the bombers in late December, it also brought back enough “bull liquor” that members thought it would last until the end of the war. Bison emblems were later painted on aircraft, based on labels from the bottles. The emblem has remained with the squadron through several aircraft types and when the unit moved north.

Under Finnish Air Force tradition, a squadron emblem is placed on the tail of an aircraft whose identification number includes the squadron’s number. The bison marks F-35A JF-511 for Fighter Squadron 11. A lynx emblem for Karelia Air Command’s Fighter Squadron 31 is due to appear on JF-531, which is expected to arrive in Finland later.

The markings on the new aircraft use different shades of grey, rather than the more conspicuous colours used on earlier planes.